Phoenix getting head coach Dave Tippett to commit to them for five more years yesterday was quite the coup for the franchise whose future is still up in the air. To get him to come back, they may have had to pay up in a big way.

Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reports that Tippett’s five-year contract is worth $2 million per season and has a out clause after each season if he doesn’t like new ownership or relocation. If true, that’s the sort of deal you can command when you’re the coach who has, up until this point, saved hockey in the desert. That’s also the same kind of money Alain Vigneault is reportedly getting to coach the New York Rangers.

In four seasons as Coyotes head coach, Tippett is 156-96-42 and has led the team to the postseason in three of those years. To say he’s not worth that kind of cash would be wrong, but for a team that’s still having its financial decisions made by the league, it seems like a huge payout.

The franchise is still given a budget to work under just like any other franchise that has an independent owner… Pretty sure Maloney has done an unbelievable job working with those constraints the past 4-5 years